A Child of Light Born of Darkness
by darkphoneix
Summary: Who are Ranma's real parents? Read this and find out!
1. A Child of Light Born of Darkness Prolog...

  
A Child of Light Born of Darkness: Prologue  
  
  
Rini, she still thought of herself as Rini, even though everyone, including her parents, now called her Black lady, let out a low cry of shock as she surveyed the results of the home pregnancy test she had snuck out to buy. How could she be pregnant?! She had just been curious, and Diamond had said that she didn't have to worry about protection her first time. But now...a baby?! She wasn't even ten years old, despite her appearance and personality, how could she possibly raise a child? And now, with the war raging, and the silence coming, she couldn't afford to be handicapped by a pregnancy.   
  
Alone in her lavish quarters within the Black Fortress, Rini curled up on her huge pink and black, satin sheeted bed and sobbed. She'd always dreamt of having bunches and bunches of little babies, all with cute little golden crescents on their brow, running around the palace. But what would her child look like now? With a mother infused to the brim with negative energy and a father exposed to that same energy for so long that he wasn't really even human, chances were that her first born child would be a monster. No doubt hideous, it would most likely have great power, power that Wise Man would use as he used everything, to bring the silence. She couldn't bare the thought of her child, no matter how twisted, being turned to the darkness like she had. She wanted a better life for it.  
  
Of course she could always abort the still undeveloped fetus, with little trauma to herself. For someone with her power, she wouldn't even have to seek medical assistance. She could simply teleport, but leave the fetus behind. The thought made Rini sob harder. What that the kind of monster had she become, that she could destroy such a young life for no other reason than that it was inconvenient? No, she would keep her child. Her child. As she slowly repeated the phrase in her mind, Rini gradually calmed down. Her child. Yes, it was hers. Hers. No one could take it from her. Certainly not Diamond, his power was nothing compared to what she now had with access to the dark crystal, and if Wise Man wanted to test her he would be in for an unpleasant suprise. Wise Man, unnatural being that he was, may have more power than her, it was too close to tell, but she had a few advantages. In giving her such complete access to the dark crystal, Wise Man had, in part, given her control over his life. He should never have linked his life-force with the crystal. She couldn't kill him with that link, but she could serious damage and weaken him. Yes, she would keep her child, and raise it like she had always meant to. Rini could just imagine all the first moments she would share with her child. Girl or boy, it didn't matter. It's first steps, first word, first kill, all these she would cherish, even if her child was a monster.  
  
Decision made, Rini dried her eyes and rushed to the house sized walk-in closet that housed her numerous pairs of black high heeled shoes and black velvet dresses. They certainly wouldn't do. With a wave of her hand, dark energy flowed through a rack of dresses and shoes. When the shadows receded, there were several outfits, all in pink and black, and a pair of black sneakers. Much better. She summoned Luna-P with a thought and converted the little magical multi-purpose cat balloon into a cute little kitty backpack. Quickly she changed into one of the new outfits, a pair of short black shorts and a pink tanktop, then stuffed all the extras into Luna-Pack, completely ignoring the fact that over three times more matter went into the pack than should have been possible. Regretfully, she used another dark energy construct to destroy nearly three feet of her hair. She let the odongos down out of her hair, they would only serve to draw unwanted attention. There was little that she could do about her hair color since the pigment was magical in nature, and uneffected by any type of dye or known spell.  
  
When she was done, Rini surveyed herself in a large three way mirror. Her bangs easily hid the Black Moon crescent that had replaced the golden one she had inherited from her mother. Her hot pink hair barely passed her shoulders, but Rini was suprised at just how much her appearance was altered by a simple new hair style. Donning her Luna-Pack, Rini slipped through the empty halls of the Black Fortress into the Time Chamber. The room was centered on the main energy nexus of the dark crystal in order to provide enough power for a time jump. If Rini's plan worked, no one would notice the sudden drain on the crystal's power. All she would have to do was return at the same moment she left and replace the used energy with her own. It would leave her mostly drained for weeks, but the price was worth it.  
  
Rini punched both the temporal coordinates and destination into the holographic touch panel that appeared in front of her when she stepped into the cramped chamber. The obsidian crystal surrounded her on all sides, but there was no time to grow claustrophobic, for as soon as the proper instructions had been entered, a low humming buzz filled the room, then with a flash of darkness, Rini no longer existed.  
****  
  
Rini appeared within a secluded cospe of trees, deep inside of Juuban Park. It was also eighteen years into the past. Rini hadn't really planned much past this point. She had no fear of going hungry or living in anything but the most comfortable of conditions. Luna-P could easily produce however much yen she needed, not to mention that she could just steal whatever she needed, but Rini didn't want to draw any kind of attention that could possibly leave records of her time spent in the past.  
  
The following months were trouble free and Rini found that her pregnancy was far from ordinary. No other child had ever grown to full term in three months, at least none that she knew off. She never left her small apartment so no one could see her rapidly advancing pregnancy. She was sitting in front of the tv watching a cheesy robot anime and eating a plate of peanutbutter and pickles, when her water broke. Rini had prepared for this moment so she didn't panic, much  
  
She made her way into the bathroom and ran a tub full of warm water. This was going to be tricky. To make sure that little Serenity or Endymion, her magic couldn't tell what the gender of her child was so she had chosen a name for each possible outcome, didn't hit the hard ceramic bottom of the tub, she padded it with several soft towels. Rini stripped off the bath robe she had been wearing and climbed into the water. Once Rini was seated comfortably, she carefully began to manipulate strands of dark energy within her womb. She destroyed the umbilical cord only a moment before teleporting onto the floor outside the tub. She ignored the wrenching pain in her abdomen and hurriedly pulled her little boy, her little Endymion from beneath the slightly pinkened water. Crying tears of joy, Rini cleared the mucus from the baby's throat and slapped his bottom, forcing him to take his first breath of air as he let loose with an ear spltting howl of a cry.   
  
Rini clutched the crying baby to her chest and let herself cry.  
****  
  
Rini pushed back the midnight black bangs of her son from his face revealing the black crescent they had hidden. He was so beautiful, so perfect. Oh Kami-sama, how was she going to leave him?! As much as it would hurt her to do it, Rini had to return to the future and complete her mission. Endymion would be in terrible danger in the Black Fortress. Emerald would surely take out her anger on her child when she learned that Diamond was the father.   
  
She snugged the soft baby blanket around Endymion and made sure for the fifth time that the small crystal pendant of condensed negative energy hung around his neck. It would be her only way to track Endymion when she returned to the past to reclaim him. Sobbing once again, Rini laid her son down on the doorstep of the Mission and knocked loudly. Unlike the return trip, where she could choose the exact time of her arrival within the Time Chamber, Rini would only be able to jump back in time with an accuracy of a month before or month after the designated date.  
  
Racked with sobs, Rini ran from down the steps and jumped into a portal of swirling darkness.  
****  
  
Genma knew that he was in serious trouble now. This was the kind of trouble that he expected Nodoka to castrate him for getting himself into. He didn't want to die!!!  
  
"Where are they?" he demanded of the clerk at the desk.  
  
"I'm sorry sir, but they left no forwarding adress," the old man answered.  
  
"But, but, I must know where to find them! They have my son!" Genma exclaimed.  
  
The old man looked concerned, but kept calm."Do you mean that they kidnapped your son?"  
  
Of course Genma couldn't tell the man the truth, that he had traded his son for a bag of peanuts, but he also couldn't tell the man that Ranma had been kidnapped. There would be inquiries, and eventually the truth would come to light, then he would die."No, no, nevermind. False alarm, heh heh."  
  
Genma nervously left the hotel's office. He was sinking further and further into despair. Sure he had used his infant son for food a few dozen times, but a ten month old child doesn't really care about things like that. He had always managed to steal his boy back from his benefactors, but this time he had failed. They were gone. His life was forfit. Maybe if he just ran away and never returned...nah, Nodoka would find him, and then it would be even worse.  
  
Walking dejectedly down the sidewalk, Genma's attention was drawn by the cry of a baby. He allowed himself to hope. Maybe the couple had decided they didn't want Ranma afterall. Suddenly full of energy, Genma jumped over the iron bar fence and ran over to the steps of a large, old stone building. He reached down and grabbed the baby without actually looking at him.  
  
He ran for ten blocks before stopping on the roof of a small bakery. Genma's stomach produced a roar almost like a clap of thunder when he caught a wiff of the wonderful aroma of baking bread, but he controlled himself and unwrapped the blanket from the now quiet child.   
  
The resembalance was amazing. His hair was practically the same length and color, and his little cherub-like features only differed slightly from Ranma's. The kami were surely smiling on him this day. He noticed a strange black mark on his forehead, but that could be easily explained away. Even the slight difference in appearance could be passed off to Nodoka as her son growing older. All he had to do was stay away from home a few months longer than he had planned.  
  
Genma held the child up in the air, just to make sure that he had all the proper appendages. Indeed he did. He also had a small gold chain around his neck holding a small chunk of black glass. Hmmm, maybe the day hadn't been a waste afterall.  
****  
  
"Damnit Oyaji, when I get my hands on you..." Ranma left the threat hanging since his father wasn't present to hear it. Somehow the bastard had found his stash of yen he'd saved from working at the Nekohaten on weekends. He needed that money to finance his training trip this summer.  
  
Ranma continued digging through his father's belongings, but didn't find so much as a yen coin. Finally, near the point of hunting the man down, Ranma spied his Genma's old backpack in the closet in their room. He shrugged. It was worth a try. He carried the old canvas bag over to his futon and emptied its contents onto the floor. It was mostly a pile of tattered gis that the man had grown too fat for over the years, but near the bottom, Ranma came across a small wooden box. It wasn't locked, so Ranma had no trouble getting it open. Inside, there were a few unused post cards, a nub of a pencil and a little black, tear drop shaped crystal.   
  
Damn, no money. It looked like there would be one seriously injured panda in a few short minutes. Curiously, Ranma picked up the small crystal. He felt almost drawn to it. Holding it in his hand, it felt much heavier than it should have been with its small size. He stood up and was about to pocket the oddity, but before he could even close his hand on it, the crystal melted into a small, shimmering black puddle in the palm of his hand.  
  
Ranma stared at his hand in shock. What in hell was it? He was furthered troubled when the puddle instantly evaporated into a small black cloud that floated above his palm. This was getting really freaky. Before Ranma could destroy it with a burst of hastily gathered chi, the cloud dispersed. Oh well, just another thing to add to the weird list.  
  
Still having not found his money, Ranma descended the stairs in search of his fahter."Hey Oyaji," he called out once he reached the bottom,"where are you at?"  
  
Ranma didn't wait for an answer. He had a pretty good idea where to find the man. He passed Kasumi in the hall, but paid her no immediate attention besides a simple greeting. His attention was too focused on the unpleasant things he could do to his father in order to get the stolen yen back to notice Kasumi gasp and say,"Oh my."  
  
Sure enough, Genma and Soun were in the parlor playing a game of shogi."Oyaji, where's my money?" Ranma demanded harshly.  
****  
  
Genma looked up at his son, a lie already formulating in his mind, but when he actually saw Ranma's face, and the black crescent on his forehead, all color drained from his own face and he began stammering in shock. That thing had faded away only a few weeks after he had found Ranma's replacement, Ranma! Why was it back?! Oh Kami-sama, Nodoka was going to be pissed!  
****  
  
Across Tokyo, in a small ice cream shop, Usagi Tsuniko and her friends were gorging themselves on ice cream when Rini, Usagi's energetic daughter from the future, clutched her head in pain and screamed. Needless to say, she had a half dozen girls very upset and worried when she stopped screaming. She was crying now. She sometimes remembered fragments of her life as Black Lady when she had been brainwashed by Wise Man, but never had she experienced one with such clarity.  
  
"Little Endymion, I'm so sorry. I forgot all about you," she whispered.  
  
Unfortunately she whispered too loud. Everyone at the table heard her."You mean Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked around a spoonful of ice cream. She was assuming that Rini was talking about her father. There weren't that many other Endymion's in the future.  
  
Rini looked around at the other girls. She shook her head and said,"No, Endymion, my son."  
  
Both Usagi and Minako chose this time to faint. All the other girls yelled,"What?!" in unison.  
****  
  
Author's Notes:Yeah yeah, I know I have way too many fics going, but when I get an idea I have to put it in words or it bothers me and interferes with writing my other fics. Anyway, tell me what you think of this. Chances are that I'm gonna continue this, along with most of my other fics, since I've been getting a lot of encouraging e-mails about all the fics I released last week. I had no idea that people would like them as much as they did. It's kinda overwhelming, but I do have some ideas for them, so I'm gonna give them a chance.  
  
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com  
  
  



	2. A Child of Light Born of Darkness 1

Child of Light Born of Darkness: Chapter 1  
  
  
"Wh-what money, s-son?" Genma stammered. Why had it come back after so long?   
  
"Don't play games with me, Oyaji," Ranma growled."I know that you stole it. No one else is stupid enough, not even Nabiki, to go into my room and take my hard earned money. Now where is it?" Ranma punctuated each word of the question with a flair of his battle aura. At least that's what he meant to do. Instead of silvery blue, the energy he emittied was dark, like a shadow. It pooled around his feet and ran up and down his arms in thick streams. Ranma didn't even notice the difference.  
  
Genma and Soun did though. Soun scrambled backwards until he collided with the wall behind him. Genma remained seated, to frightened to move. Ranma's eyes had gone black. Completely black, even down to the whites. For the older man it was like gazing into two cold black spheres of ice. Genma's agitated mind didn't even bother to associate the return of the black crescent with Ranma's change in appearance."R-Ranma, I don't know hwat you're talking about." He couldn't give the boy the money back now. He needed it himself to get away from Nodoka.  
  
Ranma walked closer, and prepared to kick his father through the wall, but at the last possible second he stopped. A strange sensation, almost like being detached from his own body had passed over Ranma, but it went as quickly as it had come. With the feeling gone, Ranma no longer saw the world in the normal vibrant colors he was accustommed to. His vision was tinted, like a pair of shades, but more pronounced. He looked down at his hands and discovered that he couldn't even see them. They were hidden by a black aura of chi energy so powerful that Ranma could barely penetrate it with his well-honed senses. A quick survey revealed to Ranma that his entire body was shrouded in the aura.  
  
His father momentarily forgotten, Ranma left the room in search of a mirror. He vaguely heard two grown men gibbering in terror as he left the room. Ranma paid them no attention. He had to find out what was wrong with him and fast, before something happened to stop him. The short walk to the bathroom felt extremely odd, like he was half floating, half-sliding. Ranma entered the bathroom and shut the door behind himself. The mirror showed a distorted, though much clearer picture of himself to Ranma. The black aura only partially outlined his form, making him seem like a walking shadow. The face, his face, was a featureless mask with two shining orbs that glowed bright silver even to Ranma's hampered vision.  
  
That crystal he had found in his father's pack, that had to be the cause. Great, another fine mess he was in because of his Oyaji. Now what was he supposed to do? There would be no help from Genma. The man probably couldn't talk right then if his life depended on it. Cologne could help, but there would almost certainly be a price. And getting to the Nekohaten when he resembled a creature from someone's nightmares was going to be difficult, at least until nightfall.  
  
Ranma only had one option, at least for now. He would have to attmept to handle the situation on his own. He went to the dojo before attempting anything dangerous so as not to damage the Tendo's home encase of an accident. The short trip brought to Ranma the same awkward feeling of sliding across jello. By the time he reached the dojo, Ranma knew why his steps felt that way. It was because his feet were never even touching the ground. The aura was all encomposing, adding an inch to his height and throwing his balance slightly off. No wonder, he was walking on a cushion of energy.  
  
Seating himself in the far corner, Ranma attempted to dispel the aura that surrounded him by manifesting his own battle aura. Slowly at first to gauge the black aura's reaction, Ranma increased the power he was pouring into his aura when there was no visible change. Just when he was using enough chi that he would have started to visibly show his aura, the black aura shifted. He felt a surge of elation for an instant, but when nothing else happened Ranma settled himself in for a long struggle. Unfortunately, Ranma found that the more chi he used the sharper the black aura became.   
  
He could clearly see his muscles sculpted in the aura. Even the folds of his baggy pants were easily discernable. This was getting him nowhere. Ranma saw that he was only worsening his situation and tightly clenched his chi, folding it back within himself, and removing the black aura's alternative power source. Or so he thought. But as soon as he no longer radiated chi, Ranma experienced the same detached sensation he had felt while looking down at his cowering father. To Ranma's amazement, the black aura was gone, and his sight was restored to normal. What in hell was going on?!  
  
As an experiment, Ranma slowly lessened the restraints over his chi. Sure enough, the black aura returned, complete with shaded vision and detached feeling. For several minutes, Ranma alternated between unleashing his chi force and reigning it back in. When he finally stopped he was certain that he could control the black aura like his normal battle aura. The detached sensation that could cost him precious seconds was also gone, replaced by something very close to its opposite. Now when the black aura shrouded Ranma his senses became sharper, more defined. This was still very new to Ranma. Whatever the blackness was, it didn't seem to be harmful, but if it came every time he used his chi, there could be problems.  
  
He climbed to his feet began a vigorous kata that few in the world besides himself could hope to accomplish. It was his own creation. Based on absolute speed, the movements were performed while in the enhanced state caused by using the katsu tenshin amaguriken to infuse himself with chi. As Ranma moved through the kata, his black aura became opaque in most places, or at least slightly grey, but his hands and feet gathered more darkness around them until they seemed to caste shadows. The kata carried him near to a half demolished wooden dummy that Akane hadn't removed after her last practice session. He was still more than two feet away from it when it fell to the floor, neatly sliced into dozens of small hunks off wood. The sound of wood clattering to the floor of the dojo drew Ranma from his kata. He felt barely winded, even though he had maintained a full amaguriken for over a minute. He looked to the source of the sound and saw the remains of the dummy. Wisps of his black aura were still floating into the air and disappearing.  
  
How had he done that? Determined to find out, Ranma cupped his hands and gathered a small amount of chi. Sure enough, the energy was midnight black, but the black aura had not returned. That was interesting. As long as he kept from applying his chi directly to himself he didn't turn black.  
  
"Moko Takabisha," he called out softly, aiming into the wooden debris. The black sphere of energy rocketed from his hand, leaving a smoky comet's tail of energy in its wake. The sphere struck the debris, and much to Ranma's dismay, exploded much more violently than it should have with the amount of energy he had given it. Thankfully there was no damage to the dojo's flooring.   
  
"Ranma, where are you?" Akane shouted from the house.  
  
He would have to clean up the mess he had made later.   
****  
  
"What do you want, Akane?" Ranma asked when he confronted her in the house.  
  
"What did you do to my daddy?!" she screamed. She looked to be only moments away from summoning her mallet.  
  
"What are you talking about? I haven't done anything to your dad." Ranma was, however, going to do something to his father. He seriously doubted that the man was going to enjoy it either.  
  
Akane didn't believe him for a moment."Well what's wrong with him then, huh?! He can't stop crying and calling out your name!" Akane's mallet appeared in her hand. She brandished the faintly glowing weapon like a mace and demanded,"You jerk, you better tell me what you did to him!"  
  
"I didn't do anything to crybaby father, you stupid tomboy!" Ranma shouted in response. He shoved his way past Akane and walked into the parlor. Soun was indeed wailing like a baby in one corner of the room, and Genma was still seated where Ranma left him. The fat man was nearly as pale as his sweat soaked gi and was trembling violently."All right, hand it over!" Ranma ordered.  
  
Genma's head jerked up at the sound of Ranma's voice. Shakily, he reached into his gi and retrieved a large wad of yen bills. Ranma snatched them from his hand. His hands blurred as he counted the money. It was all there, all seventy-five thousand yen. Ranma ignored Soun's wailing even as it grew louder and asked,"That little black crystal in your old pack, what was it?"  
  
Ranma's question only seemed to worsen Genma's condition. He tried to say something, but the words were garbled. Then, before Ranma could even smack the bastard, Genma's eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out.  
  
"Damn," Ranma muttered. He had to find out what was wrong with his aura. It looked like it was time to visit the Nekohaten.  
****  
  
Rini shrank from Usagi's intense, questioning gaze. They were at Rei's temple now since it was the closest place they could talk privately and none of the girls wanted to try to carry Usagi or Minako very far. They were a lot heavier that they looked.  
  
"Explain," Usagi said simply. Her voice held none of the exuberance it normally bubbled with. Rini remembered hearing her mother use that same tone of voice back home in the future when she was discussing matters of state. It gave away nothing.   
  
Rini, her head hung low began,"I just remembered in the ice cream place." She paused and collected her wits."When I was Black Lady, well...I guess I slept with Prince Diamond one time. I can't remember it, thankfully." In truth she could remember every exquisite detail, but she didn't want to embarass herself in front of everyone."I found out that I was pregnant and snuck into the past to have the baby where he would be safe from Wise Man and the others of the Dark Moon Family. I can't remember much of the time I spent there, but I remember leaving Endymion, that's what I named him, at an old Christian Mission. I was going to return after we won, the Dark Moon family I mean, and get him back, but then you fixed my memory and we killed wise man...and I forgot." Rini's eyes teared up and emotions that the little eleven year old girl wasn't prepared to handle rose to the surface."I forgot about my little boy!" she cried, breaking down into small sobs of pain and despair.  
  
Everyone, including Setsuna was more or less in shock. It seemed impossible that Rini, Usagi's daughter from the future that everyone treated like a little sister, could have had a child. Usagi appeared to be least effected by the revelation. She sat down next to her quasi-daughter and hugged her fiercely, letting the girls tears fall into her lap."Shhh, it's all right, shhh. We'll find him for you Rini,a nd everything will be all better." Usagi was amazed at how calm she was. It was like all the foolishness in her head that she normally passed off as thought vanished, leaving an almost differnt person behind. She knew how to comfort her daughter, and what to say.  
  
When Rini stopped crying Ami handed her a hankie. Rini blew her nose while Ami was asking her a question so she had to ask her to repeat it again."I just wanted to know what year you traveled to for the birth."  
  
"1982," she answered between sniffles."He was born on October 19, 1982."  
  
"Today is April 30, 2000, so that would make Ranma seventeen years old," Ami said."He's older than we are!" Ami gasped softly.  
  
"He'll be so big..." Rini whispered softly."He won't even know me." She broke down in another crying fit.  
  
Taking the initiative, Ami silently pulled her computer from subspace and keyed into it a search pattern that should eventually identify any blended Silver Millenium, Dark Moon energy patterns. There was no way to tell how long the search would take, so Ami said nothing, not wanting to get Rini's hopes up.  
  
Greatly disturbed by this turn of events, Setsuna opened a portal to the time gate and stepped through. She had much to do, and amazingly enough, little time to do it.  
****  
  
"Old Ghoul, hey Old Ghoul!" Ranma shouted once he had entered the restaurant.  
  
"What can I do for you Son-in-law?" Cologne asked from behind him.  
  
Ranma slowly turned around to face the aged Amazon. This time he had actually felt her approach. Ranma pushed his bangs to the side, revealing his newest feature. He hadn't even noticed it until he went to clean himself up a bit in the bathroom. Apparently it came with the black aura."My aura is pitch black now and I have this thing on my head. Any ideas why?"  
  
Cologne motioned for Ranma to have a seat."I honestly have no clue, Son-in-law. Have you partcipated in any unusaul rituals lately, or been exposed to an unknown magical artifact?" It was worth asking him. You could never rule out the paranormal where Ranma was concerned.  
  
Ranma decided not to include trying to eat Akane's cooking in the unusual ritual category, and explained in detail the black crystal he had found in his father's pack.  
  
"And it disappeared completely?" Cologne asked."None of it was absorbed into your skin?"  
  
"All of it disappeared, I'm certain."  
  
Cologne was quiet for a minute before saying,"I've never heard of such an experience, therefore I can not in good conscience, give you a course of action to follow. Could you show me the aura, maybe that will give me some clue as to your affliction?"  
  
Ranma nodded and turned loose his chi. It filled his body with warmth while shrouding him in darkness. He felt himself rise out of the chair slightly as the aura fully enclosed him.  
  
Cologne's eyes widened as she noticed the density and cohesion of Ranma's battle aura. The chi wasn't even being expended. Instead it flowed smoothly around Ranma's form, all the while drawing in light and heat. Incredible! Ranma had somehow gained access to a never ending supply of energy."That is enough, Son-in-law." There was no magic in Ranma's aura besides the normal traces that lingered of Jusenkyo when he wasn't in his cursed form, so this wasn't a bad thing.  
  
"Figure anything out?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Ranma, your new aura is essentially a suit of armor. The chi that composes it is so dense that I seriously doubt anything less than a high-powered weapon or extremely focused chi blast could penetrate it. Add to that the fact that it gathers energy instead of expending it and I believe that you have stumbled across the Holy Grail of martial arts." If only she could have gotten her hands on that crystal!   
  
Ranma didn't know what the Holy Grail was, but Cologne sounded almost excited. That meant that he wasn't going to die in the next few hours at least."Well thanks for your time Old Ghoul, I guess."  
  
"Thank nothing of it Son-in-law. I'm glad to have been of assistance."  
****  
  
Ami was stunned at the speed with which her computer had found Endymion. The readings indicated that Endymion was eminating massive amounts of some unknown energy form that closely resembled both Silver Millenium and Dark Moon patterns, but differed in several minor ways. She was also reading a high energy drain from the same coordiantes. Amazing! Endymion was absorbing almost all the energy that he spent and adding to it with the ambient energy from his surroundings. If not for the advanced multi-dimensional sensors built into her computer, Ami would never have been able to detect the energy readings. She couldn't wait to meet Endymion. He promised to be a most interesting aquaintence.   
  
Before Ami could tell any of the others the good news, the readings fell off and disappeared completely before she could get a lock. The complete halt of all power output was amazing in of itself. Ami nearly set the computer to auto scan the area again and alert her when Endymion once again used his power, but a small discrepancy in the numbers displayed on the bottome readout caused her to take a second look at the power readings. She almost slapped herself for missing it. Even though Endymion was no longer giving off energy, he was still pulling in a small amount. It was barely registering to even her computer, but it was there, and it was traceable.  
****  
  
Akane had mostly forgot about Ranma's mistreatment of her father in favor of dwelling upon his mistreatment of her. He had shoved her! Like she were a child, he had pushed her out of his way without even a simple apology. Not that she had expected one from the jerk, but it was the principle of the matter. And now he had disappeared, nowhere to be found. It couldn't be a coincidence that he would vanish right before she punished him for shoving her. The pervert was probably messing around with one of his other fiances.  
  
Well, if that was how he wanted to play it, then fine. He had to come home eventually, and when he did he was going to get the beating of his life.  
****  
  
Ranma entered through the back gate as quietly as possible and immediately regretted it when the rusty hinges on the door made a loud creaking noise. Why hadn't he just jumped over the wall? Too late for that.  
  
"Raaanmaaaaa!"   
  
Ranma looked up to see Akane charging at him with her crimson glowing mallet and instinctively let his chi free. There was the now familiar sharpening of the senses and shaded vision that accompanied his black aura. The mallet's momentum carried it forward into Ranma's head even though Akane, suprised by Ranma's sudden change in appearance, had tried to stop it.  
  
Not only did the mallet strike have no effect on Ranma, but Ranma barely even felt the impact. Nor did he feel the impact of hundreds of wooden splinters as the head of the mallet exploded an instant after coming on contact with his aura.  
  
Akane had a couple of splinters in her hands and a bleeding cut on her forehead near her hairline, but other that that escaped relatively uninjured. Luckily none of the splinters had pierced her eyes. Ranma reigned the aura in and said,"Come on Akane, let's go have Kasumi look at that cut."  
  
Akane flinched at Ranma's touch but allowed him to lead her into the kitchen where they found Kasumi. Akane remained speechless even as her older sister dabbed peroxide on the wound and stuck a large band-aid over it.  
****  
  
Ranma was already gone when Kasumi asked what happened."I was going to mallet Ranma for whatever he did to daddy to scare him so bad and for disappearing earlier, but before I could hit him he made some kind of aura. It was pure black, Kasumi, and his eyes turned silver. He looked like a monster! Then when my mallet hit him he didn't even budge. It was like he hadn't even flet it. That's when it exploded. The whole end just exploded, without Ranma even doing anything."  
  
Kasumi patted her sister on the shoulder and said,"I'm sure that Ranma just made up a new technique. You know how he is about those kinds of things. You know that he's not really a monster."  
  
Akane nodded absentmindedly, her mind occupied by two glowing silver orbs.  
****  
  
"I've found him, you guys," Ami announced to the crowd of girls in Rei's room. The Outers had left shortly after Setsuna, so there was no problem with space for them to lounge around. Rini and Usagi were almost back to their old selves, arguing over one of Rei's manga.  
  
Rini let go of the manga causing Usagi to fall gracelessly back onto the floor. She rushed over to Ami and asked,"Really, you found Endymion?" She squealed in delight when Ami answered yes. There were so many things she wanted to tell her son. Of course she would tell him about her idenity and his heritage. She couldn't wait to tell Endymion about him being a prince.  
  
"Hey Usagi, is that a gray hair?" Rei asked Usagi as she examined her prostrate friend's head."It is!" she shouted in mock horror."Usagi is going gray!"  
  
"I am not going gray!" Usagi screamed in true horror."Waaaahhhh," she began crying."You're such a meenie, Rei! Waaahhhhhh!"  
  
"Well you are a grandmother now Usagi, so it is to be expected," Makoto added.  
  
"Waaaaahhhhhh! I'm turning into an old woman! Waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"  
****  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, you asked for it and here it is. I know that Rini is sorta OOC, but I had to make some changes and it's better to do small personality changes along the way than to have a person magically become a completely different person between heartbeats. Send me C&C so that I can get an idea of what I need to change about the fic.   
  
dark_phoneix@hotmail.com  



	3. A Child of Light Born of Darkness 2

  
  
"Calm down Usagi, it was just a joke," Rei snapped as the group of girls got off the subway train.  
  
Usagi was still meticulously examining each hair with a small pocket mirror."Leave me alone," Usagi snapped back."I'm suprised that you would even want to be seen in public with an old hag like me," Usagi said after a few minutes of walking.  
  
"Usagi, Rei is older than you are," Ami pointed out helpfully.  
  
"But I don't have granchildren!" Rei flared.  
  
"I'm only sixteen and I'm already an old hag!" Usagi cried.  
  
Makoto, being the tallest among them, couldn't help but notice the strange looks they were getting from other pedestrians."Cut it out Usagi, you're making a scene," Makoto hissed in her ear.  
  
Usagi managed to stiffle her wailing, but she could not stop the small sniffles that continued to plague her. Rei was so mean to her!  
  
Rini walked silently behind the others. Ami said that Endymion was in Nerima and that he was relatively stationary, so at least they didn't have to chase after him, but this slow and easy pace was worse. If they had had to run after him then at least her mind could be occupied by something else besides her reunion with Endymion. The excitement had quickly worn away, leaving apprehension and fear behind. How was she supposed to treat her son? She couldn't treat him like a little child and tell him what to do, he was older than her, and she was still to much of a child for that any way. Like a big brother? That could work, but how would Endymion react to an eleven year old little girl being his mother? Would he even believe her?  
  
Most likely not, not at first anyway. Her and the other senshi would probably have to transform to convince him that they were being truthful. Afterall, who wouldn't believe the famous Sailor Senshi? Luna's angry rebuke drew Rini's attention.  
  
"Usagi, stop this nonsense at once," the cat shouted from inside her duffel bag."You don't have any gray hairs! Now stop swinging me around and act your age!"  
  
"But Luna," Usagi whined,"how do you know that I don't have any, you can't even see out of the bag?"  
  
"Owww, hey, don't take it out on me," Artemis cried out. The bag took on a life of its own as the two cats fought for a minute.  
  
"Sorry, just had to take care of something. Now Usagi, you can't possibly have gray hair because your family never shows any of the detrimental signs of aging. You'll live four or five millenia then drop dead looking like a 25 year old," Luna said sounding much more reasonable.  
  
"Oh, well why didn't you say so?" Usagi enthused. She patted the bag with the cats in it, earning a hiss when she accidentally hit Artemis' head too hard.  
****  
  
"Shouldn't you be studying, Ranma?" Nabiki asked Ranma. She had expected to find him in the dojo, and she hadn't been disappointed. It was kind of unnerving to see Ranma going about his business looking like something that had escaped from the bowels of hell. He turned around to regard her with startling bright silver eyes.  
  
Ranma pulled his chi back in, carrying the black aura and silver eyes with it."Hey Nabiki. Is that a new kind of perfume your wearing?" he asked as if he hadn't heard Nabiki's question. His senses were starting to remain enhanced even after dropping the aura.  
  
Nabiki's eyes narrowed as she studied Ranma. No, he wasn't joking."Why yes it is Ranma, would you like some? I'm sure it would go well with your girl form."  
  
Emphatically, Ranma shook his head."Why would I be studying?" he asked, finally acknowledging her earlier question.  
  
"Well finals are in less than two weeks, and I figured that you would want to pass your junior year. If I was mistaken I'm terribly sorry," answered Nabiki sarcastically.  
  
Ranma shrugged and said,"I'll get around to it eventually. Right now I'm more concerned with learning how to control my new...whatever it is." To demonstrate Ranma held out his arm and loosened his chi slightly, causing only the arm to take on the black aura."It's not like a normal battle aura. There are some really weird properties to it that I need to learn. I also need to figure out how to hide this thing," Ranma pushed his bangs aside revealing the black crescent,"or Kuno is going to have a field day calling me a foul sorceror and all that."  
  
Nabiki couldn't fault him on his logic. If she started looking like a demon every time she used her art, the family would starve. In Ranma's case there would just be more people trying to kill him."Well, I just came to tell you that dinner is ready."  
  
"Wow, thanks. Free of charge?" Ranma asked. Then he remembered who he was talking to and quickly bolted, leaving a fuming Nabiki alone in the dojo. He definitely couldn't afford to get on her bad side now, not after getting his money back. Chances were that his father would be at the meal too. He could find out what that crystal was and why it had messed around with his chi.  
  
All the food was laid out on the table when he entered the house. He took his cutomary seat and waited for everyone else to arrive. Akane came first. She glared at him hatefully while fingering the bandage on her head. The fathers came next. They were walking sideways, the shogi board held between them. As they took glances to make sure they didn't run into anything, the other would rearrange the pieces to his advantage. By the time they were at the table Nabiki too had taken her seat. Genma and Soun appeared to be unable to decide what to do. Whoever tried to sit down first would surely lose a number of valuable pieces, but then again Kasumi's wonderful cooking was calling to both men. The problem was solved when Kasumi came in carrying the final dish. She set it down and smoothly lifted the game board from the adults' grasp.  
  
Deprived of the only obstacle between them and the table, Genma and Soun sat down. Kasumi returned after carrying the board by to the parlor and they had a normal, almost quiet and uneventful meal. Ranma even forgot to steal all of his fahter's food in order to force him to tell him about the crytal.  
****  
  
Usagi had complained loudly about being famished so they had stopped at a nearby McDonald's and feasted on some of the world's unhealthiest food. She was still loudly slurping on a massive ice cream cone that was composed of no less than nine different kinds off ice cream when they got off the bus in Nerima.  
  
It was like walking into another world. Most of the buildings showed signs of recent repairs, the roads were a mix of old and new asphault, and every third building housed the main office of either a construction company or a psychiatrist. Almost everyone they passed on the street had a nervous, wild gleam to their eyes, like they were expecting an armed invasion at any moment.  
  
"This is creepy," Minako said."I thought all the stories about Nerima were just myths, but...wow, is that a crater?" she finished, pointing down a small side street. The street and the face of a small grocery store were had a very large chunk of material missing from them.   
  
"I haven't heard of any explosions in the news recently," Ami wondered aloud."Do you think that the whole ward is really haunted like everyone at schools says?"  
  
Makoto answered,"I doubt it. I hear that there are a lot of really good martial artists here, world-class even. Maybe we could stop by a dojo and see if that's true. I would love to spar with one of the best, just to see how I rank."  
  
"We didn't come all this way to check out dojo's, Makoto," Rei said."We're looking for Rini's son, that's it."  
  
"I wish I could have got in touch with Mamo-chan. Nerima is a dangerous place," Usagi said after inhaling the last of her snack.  
  
"If there's anybody that should be scared, it's the idiots that make this place dangerous. We are the Sailor Senshi afterall, so what do we have to worry about?" Makoto asked no one in particular. She realized just how loud she had said that and hurriedly spun around, making sure that no one had heard that wasn't meant too.  
  
Ami spoke up once again,"What are we going to tell Endymion once we find him?" She led them down another street as she followed the small map displayed on her computer.  
  
"That Rini is his mother, of course," Usagi answered. What else could they say to him?  
  
Rei shook her head."Meatball head, you're hopeless. We can't just go up to a boy, that's never met us, has no idea who we are, and tell him that Rini is his mother. Did you even think that he may not know that he was adopted?" She assumed that Endymion was adopted. There wasn't much else that could be done for a little baby."We don't even know what the name he goes by is."  
  
"Yeah, we should just tell him that his mother isn't his real mother. Once we manage to convince him of that, we can move on to the more outrageous facts, like Rini being his mother and Usagi his grandmother," Makoto added.  
  
"Are we going to tell him our secret idenities?" Minako asked.  
  
"We'll probably have to in order to convince him that we're telling the truth," Rei said.  
  
"Is that really a good idea? We don't know him as a person yet. He oculd be untrustworthy." Makoto feared that they were getting their hopes up. Endymion could turn out to be a car thief or a muderer or something.  
  
"We can trust Endymion, I know we can!" Rini shouted. What right did they have to talk about her little boy like that?   
  
"I'm sure we can Rini. From what my computer has picked up on of Endymion's energy pattern, he is very powerful. I believe someone of his abilities would have come to the attention of the authorities long ago if he was a trouble maker."  
  
They walked in silence after that until Ami said,"He should be near the end of this block. Is everyone ready?"  
  
They all answered yes, including the two cats they were carrying with them.  
****  
  
Kasumi had just dried the last dish from supper when someone rang the doorbell. Who could be visiting? It surely wasn't any of Ranma's fiances or friends, they were always much more direct, always saving her the trouble of greeting them by jumping over the wall into the backyard or making their own entrances. She dried her hands and took her apron off before answering the door.  
  
"Yes, may I help you?" she asked as she opened the door. Oh dear. There were five young woman, all very beautiful, and a cute little girl with wonderful pink hair. She so hoped that they weren't more fiances of Ranma's. He had so much trouble with the ones he already had.  
  
"We were looking for a young man that may live here. He'd be seventeen years old, with black hair, and possibly have a small black crescent shaped tattoo on his forehead," said a girl that looked so much like Akane that Kasumi didn't believe she could have told them apart if not for the slight difference in their hair styles and eye color.  
  
"You must mean Ranma. He's in the dojo practicing now, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind having visitors. If you would follow me?" Kasumi motioned for them to enter and led them through the house and towards the dojo."If I may ask, what are your intentions towards Ranma?"  
  
"It's a personal matter," the nice girl with long black hair said.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry." Near the entrance to the dojo, Kasumi said,"Ranma may be using a new technique that he learned recently, so don't be alarmed by his appearance. He's perfectly human I assure you."  
****  
  
They all exchanged guarded looks. What was that last comment supposed to mean? The polite woman that had greeted them at the door opened the door of a traditional Japanese dojo. It became woefully clear what she had meant as they followed her into the training hall.   
  
Near the center of the dojo, a humanoid mass of blackness was darting around three wooden dummies that looked like they had seen better days and were set up in a triangular pattern. Every time it passed one of the dummies, a small piece of the training equipment was torn away by a blurring band of shadow.  
  
"Ranma, you have visitors."  
  
Ranma stopped moving and faced them. Now that he wasn't an indistinguishable blur, they saw the shining silver eyes and sharply defined physique of shadow. Every single one of them had to fight the urge to pull out her henshin rod and transform, even Rini who knew that she was possibly facing her son.  
  
Ranma saw the girls all gawking at him and and nearly choked. No way! There, were five of them, and a little girl. Please don't let them be fiances. Please! Seeing that he was frightening them, Ranma releashed his chi and tried to smile reassuringly.  
  
Rini and the others gasped as the blackness that surrounded Ranma seemed to be drawn within him. When it was gone, there stood a young man who's lack of a shirt revealed his wonderfully muscled chest and abdomen. He smiled a small smile at them. The black crescent over his brow was unmistkable  
  
"I'll you all talk now," Kasumi said. She left the dojo and determined that she needed to find Nabiki. She wasn't going to tell her sister about Ranma's guests, she was instead going try to keep her curious sister occupied so that Ranma could have some privacy.  
  
"Um hi, I'm Ranma," he greeted them."Before we even start, none of you are engaged to me are you?" Better to go ahead and get this part out of the way.  
  
"Engaged?!" everyone but Rini and Ami bellowed.  
  
Ranma saw their reaction and knew immediately that this wasn't one of those situations."Oh sorry, it's just that Pop has engaged me to so many girls that I'm sorta cautious now."  
  
Rini couldn't believe her ears. Endymion, correction, Ranma had just said that the man who had raised him had engaged him to more than one girl. That horrible man! When she got her hands on him...ooooo, she was going to do something very not nice!  
  
"You have more than one fiance?" Minako, the closet romantic asked. The thought of talking to Ranma's father and maybe making arrangements for herself flitted through her mind for an instant, but common sense and the knowledge that Ranma was Rini's daughter stiffled her desire. Damn he was sexy!  
  
Ranma proceeded to towel himself off and then answered,"Three right now, four if you look at it a certain way, but there were a couple engagements that I managed to get out of."  
  
Rini was really, really going to hurt that man!  
  
"Okay, now you girls know one of the aspects of my screwed up life, maybe you could tell me what you want," Ranma said. That girl that looked like Akane was unnerving. He kept expecting her to scream something about him being a pervert and attack him with a mallet, but this girl had a totally different aura than his fiance.   
  
Rei stepped forward and asked,"Did you know that you are adopted?"  
  
Ranma laughed for a couple minutes. If only he could have been so lucky. Hell, he could get out of three of the engagements just by being adpoted. After he stopped laughing, Ranma saw that the girl was being serious and scowling at him."You're not joking are you? I guess you girls just made a mistake, sorry. I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts, and I'm sure that I'm not adopted."  
  
Usagi made herself known, and impressed her friends once again with how serious she could be when it was necessary, by saying,"Ranma, that crescent on your head is a family birth mark, see?" Her brow furrowed in concentration for a few seconds, then with a flash of golden light, a golden crescent like Ranma's black one revealed itself.  
  
Ranma approached Usagi and examined the golden crescent carefully, making sure not to laugh at her ridiculous hair style. It really was there, just like his except for much shinier. Still, that proved nothing."That's a nice trick, probably good at parties too, but it would take more than that to convince me that I'm adopted."  
  
Usagi continued,"When you were a baby, your mother left a small black crystal with you when she left. It was shaped like a tear drop and attached to a gold chain."  
  
Usagi's words had the desired effect. Ranma jerked like he had been slapped. How big of a coincidence was that? It hadn't even been a day since he had found the crystal in the first place and now a bunch of girls, one with a similar mark on her forehead, came looking for him, talking about that crystal. Ranma didn't say anything to the girls as he walked out of the dojo. Genma had A LOT of explaining to do if that girl was telling the truth.  
  
Usagi led her little crew of adolescent and one pre-adolescent girls after Ranma. This was what she was made for. Whenever there was major trouble, Usagi took charge of the situation and never let her friends down. This time it was her daughter and grandson that she had to help. She wouldn't fail.  
  
Ranma found his father just where he expected him. Genma was playing checkers with Soun in the parlor and was in the process of prying his way into a new bottle of saki. Ranma gave him no time to move. He walked over to his father calmly, reached down and grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into the wall. His black aura coursed up his arm and surrounded his hand for a moment. Ranma pulled his hand back, but the black energy remained, holding Genma's struggling form against the wall.  
  
Genma saw all the girls arrayed in the doorway behind his son thought that he was done for. He had hoped that none of the other girls he had engaged Ranma too would show up, but five at once, he might as well have told Nodoka the truth all those years ago. Ranma was going to kill him, but he didn't have a nice sharp katana to do it with. Then Genma caught sight of a golden crescent on one of the girls' forehead, and he knew that death would be a blessing to what he would soon endure. He was pretty sure that there was no escape, but that didn't stop him from trying. His kicking and jerking at the wall was only serving to put more force on his throat, though, and he eventually ceased struggling.  
  
Once the fat bastard had stilled, Ranma said,"Oyaji, if there's ever been one time in your life where your life depends on how honest you are, this is it, understand?"  
  
Genma looked down to his son and croaked out a,"Yes." It would be a lot easier if Ranma would at least let his feet touch the floor, then he could talk halfway decently.  
  
"This girl..." Ranma looked at the girl with the retarded hair.  
  
"Usagi," Usagi answered the unspoken question.  
  
"Usagi says that I'm adopted. I didn't believe her, but then she made that little moon appear on her forehead. It looks a lot like mine, don't you think?" Genma once again answered yes."Turns out that it's a birthmark from her family. I still didn't believe her, but then she mentioned a little black crystal that was supposed to have been left with me when I was a baby. The way she describes it, it sounds just like the one I found in your stuff earlier today. That crystal gave me my little moon and screwed my chi up so that it's black and acts all weird. Now, am I adopted?"  
  
Soun had been silently gathering his courage and chose this time to save his friends life. He bounded towards Ranma with suprising speed, the unopened bottle of saki held in his hand like a club. Unfortunately, Ranma's foot was faster. It impacted brutally with Soun's face, creating a meaty SMACK and propelling him mercilessly into the wall. Noiselessly, Soun's inert body slid down the wall and crumpled into a heap of broken man.  
  
Genma still hadn't said anything, so Ranma once again prompted him."Are you my father?" he asked slowly.  
  
Genma was almost too afraid to breathe, but he finally manage to pull in a shaky bit of air. What could he tell him? The truth? No, never, but what else was there to tell? He couldn't think of any plausible lies that Ranma would believe. He just hung off the wall, trying to breathe.  
  
Ranma's ire was steadily building. Genma's silence was answering his question as well as a written confession, but he wanted to hear the words. More than that though, he wanted to hear an apology. An apology for all the shit he had been put through, all the trouble his father had caused, and most especially, all the damned fiances that he had stuck him with.  
  
Throughout this encounter, Usagi and the other girls remained silent. Ranma had to find this out for himself. They were all slightly scared of bothering him just then, too, but how could they not be a little bothered by Ranma's display. They had barely even seen him move when the other man had attacked him. The older man had just snapped back when he came in contact with the blur that they assumed was Ranma, and flown into the wall like he was a doll.  
  
Rini was kinda proud of Ranma. He had grown up to be very handsome, just like a prince should be, was an excellant fighter, so that he could fight alongside her and her friends, and he really looked like he was going to punish that horrible man who had raised him.  
  
Genma looked helplessly at Ranma, and for the second time, saw his color shifted aura appear. He couldn't bring himself to look into the silver depths of Ranma's burning eyes, but he could feel them pressing down on him, making it even harder to breathe.  
  
"Damnit, answer me!" Ranma roared. The walls rattled with the force of his demand. Ranma was pleased to see a yellow stain spreading from the crotch of Genma's gi down to the bottom of the left leg.  
  
Ranma's demand also drew the attention of the other inhabitants of the house. Together, Kasumi and Nabiki came down the stairs and manuevered their way into the room. Kasumi saw her father slumped against the wall and rushed over to him. Nabiki remained silent, observing with a keen eye all that happened.  
  
Akane bulled her way through Usagi and her friend and shouted,"Ranma, you pervert!"  
  
Akane's claim followed only milliseconds after Genma's rasping confession,"No, I'm not your father."  
  
Ranma ignored Akane and allowed himself to smile under his aura. It wasn't a happy kind of smile, the kind you get when you find out that you've just won the lottery, or the sad kind of smile for someone you're taking pity on. No, this smile was full of malice."Kiyaaa!" along with the cry, Ranma relaxed the control over his chi much more than was necessary to maintain the black aura. The results were spectacular. The wall which Genma was pinned to was blown completely away, carrying Genma into the yard with it, and Ranma's midnight enshrouded form changed.  
  
Ranma couldn't see the changes in his aura, but everyone else could. It seemed to almost become blacker, if that were possible, but was in fact drawing in light more rapidly than before, truly wrapping Ranma in shadow for three feet in every direction. Along his back, arms, and legs, the utter blackness of his aura formed numerous spines of varying length, the longest being those on either forearm that resembled wickedly curved swords. Most stunning, and frightening of all, were the wings. They were both beautiful and horrifying, appearing to be much like bat wings. The spaces where tightly stretched membranes of skin would have been were instead filled in with glowing planes of shining silver energy, the same energy that formed the eyes of Ranma's black aura.  
  
Ranma, his body encased in its demonic shell, stepped through the space where the wall had once stood and glided towards his target. Genma lay among the debris of the shattered wall, unmoving and lifeless, except for an occasional groan of pain.  
****  
  
Author's Notes: I'm on a roll. This makes three in less than thirty hours. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys this and you can send C&C to me at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com 


	4. A Child of Light Born of Darkness 3

  
Ranma soon grew tired of kicking Genma around the yard like the human beach ball that he was, but before he could give up he seemed to notice his appearance for the first time. More specifically, Ranma noticed the three foot blades extending from each of his arms. He tested one's edge by tearing a long gash in the soil at his feet. The dark blade passed through the hard packed dirt as if there were no obstacle at all.  
  
"Well Oyaji, it looks like we're having Genma fillet for dinner tomorrow." Slowly, he drew the blades across the whimpering man's chest. The gi he wore peeled away like air. A thick line of crimson blood welled up from where Ranma had cut. Satisfied, Ranma went into a blur of motion.  
  
To everyone watching, Ranma's dark form was nearly impossible to see clearly for more than the merest instant. Genma on the other hand was looking like last week garbage. The remains from a slaughter house. Ranma had completely stripped his 'father' of clothing and there were hundreds upon hundreds of nicks and gashes covering the man's body.  
  
Usagi, previously paralyzed by a sort of sick fascination, finally came to her senses. She couldn't let her grandson become a murderer, which he was well on his way to achieving. There was no way she could transform, not in front of so many civilians, but from what she had seen of their treatment of Ranma's special abilitie, the Tendo family appeared accustommed to the unsual. If there was a possiblity, she knew she had to try. Power was close at hand with her own crescent revealed and the masking magic gone. Usagi knew theoretically that she should be able to throw around her magical energy while not in senshi form, but how? Luna had never bothered to train her, and the whole situation wasn't desperate enough for whatever programming she had that took over and transformed her into her true eternal form to kick in.  
  
Genma was bleeding really badly now, Usagi saw. He couldn't take much more abuse from Ranma and Ranma didn't look much like he was in the mood to stop. Usagi began thinking of all the times where her friends or her Mamo-chan, or her daughter had been in trouble. They had died for her. She found a well of emotions that she had long kept hidden. They had sacrificed themselves before for her sake, she should be able to pull off a little trick, something, anything to save Genma if it meant Ranma would keep what little of his innocence remained. Usagi's crescent began to glow lightly, unnoticed by Ranma's audience. The world went black around her.  
****  
  
Usagi opened her eyes and squealed in a mixture of fright and delight. There were clouds everywhere, of all shapes, sizes, and colors. She was floating lazily through the air on a soft cloud of sky blue mist.  
  
"My daughter, you have grown into a beautiful woman," a voice from behind Usagi said.  
  
Usagi spun around and was confronted by her mother, the Queen of the Moon Kingdom, Serenity."Mo-mother, what's going on?" she asked."Where am I?"  
  
Serenity stepped closer and embraced her daughter. There were silver tears in her eyes and running down her cheeks as she stepped back."This was always my favorite place when I was a child. It was easier to bring you here than to talk to you directly."  
  
"I don't understand, Mother. I've got to go back and help Ranma. He doesn't know any better but he's going to kill his father, adopted father I mean."  
  
"Do not worry, Ranma and all the others will be exactly as they were upon your return as when you left them. Actually this visit is mostly for Ranma's sake. Listen closely, Ranma will need to know this if he is to survive." Usagi nodded."The positive, or silver energy that we of the Moon Kingdom used was not 'good' energy, it was simply what we had access to. Positive energy comes more readily and in much higher quantities when a person's intentions are pure, but in the wrong hands, positive energy could be as deadly or even moreso than negative energy. Negative energy is likewise neither 'good' or 'evil', it's just that negative energy is more available to those with evil in their hearts. For thousands of years our people harnessed these two opposing forces, but terrible imbalances were created in parts of the solar system and the neighboring star systems. You see, during different time periods, one of the two energies was always the more commonly used, negative for war and expansion, positive for peace and healing." Serenity paused for a moment, lost in her memories, before she continued.  
  
"The countless shiftings between the two energies had destabilized huge areas of open space. Many of the main shipping lanes were effected because of the drive systems on the ships were powered by either a silver or dark mage. It came to the attention of the Queen at that time, my long dead ancestor, that steps had to be taken or disaster would soon befall the kingdom. Scientists and mages were gathered to discover a solution to the problem. Their efforts were partially succesful when they created the Silver Imperium Crystal and the Black Light Gem. Both acted as powerful magnifying devices for their respective energies, and with proper management the imbalances were removed. An act of sabotage by a group of political dissidents seriously damaged the Black Light Gem's monitoring station and the out of control Gem badly destablized the entire region. When rescue crews arrived, the Gem was gone. It was assumed that the Gem was destroyed. It wasn't, it infact emerged from a blackhole in another galaxy and grew into the dark moon you know as Nemesis, but this is irrelevant to the story. Now with only the Silver Imperium Crystal, the imbalances were occuring more rapidly than ever and with much greater magnitude, but the knowledge used to create the Black Light Gem had been lost."  
  
"For over a century the condition worsened until finally two great mages came forward with a solution. They were brothers, their names lost in antiquity, but one was a Silver Mage and the other a Dark Mage. They proposed altering the souls of specific people with high magic indexes so that they constantly emitted either positive or negative energy. These people would then be taught by mages of both orders how to regulate their energy. House Serenity and House Beryl were the only family with a strong enough bloodline and enough magic to undergo the procedure. The Queen volunteered herself and the rest of her family to undergo the process, as did Lord Garion, the then current head of House Beryl. Our line was more suited for the positive aspect while Garion's, though not evil, were best suited to the negative. In the end the alterations were carried out and peace and prosperity were restored for several millenia until High Lady Beryl made her pact with Metallia, and you know what happened after that."  
  
"The whole point of this narration is this: over the millenia, the House of Serenity and the House of Beryl tried on numerous occasions to mix the blood in order to create a soul capable of producing both positive and negative energy, but they never succeeded. Never that is until roughly a quarter century before the fall of the Moon Kingdom. The girl born of my brother and Beryl's niece, possessed the positive and negatives aspects of both Houses. Her power first manifested when she was in her late teens, and it was a power to make the heavens tremble. She was feared in much the same way as poor, sweet Saturn. The girl had it within her power to request a favor of me as I was her godmother, and it was a favor I was all too happy to grant. With the Time Gates recently created and with an unlinked power conduit, it was a simple matter to give her Setsuna her title as Sailor Pluto."  
  
Usagi broke in,"You mean that Setsuna is that powerful?" Why hadn't she used all that power in all the fights over the last two years?   
  
Serenity nodded."Setsuna is very powerful, but her link to the Time Gate neutralizes her power. Unfortunately the process was still too unstable to reverse when Beryl and her forces attacked or I may have, with her help, been able to repulse the invaders. Now Ranma has come along, with his dual natured soul of Serenity Silver, and the Black Light Gem's own negatively created Dark soul. He must learn to balance the two energies within and without, or he will certainly destroy himself, and possibly take the world with him." Serenity held her hand out to Usagi. It contained a small blue crystal key."Give this to Setsuna, she'll know what to do with it and tell her to train Ranma and choose a successor for the mantle as Sailor Pluto."  
  
As Usagi had listened to her mother, her own memories of what had been spoken of slowly came back. She remembered sitting through dozens of history classes now, all of them giving much longer and even more boring lectures about the subject of the Great Balance as the act of the two mage brothers was called.  
  
"My time grows short," Serenity said. Her slowly began to lighten as she spoke those few words, and her form became insubstantial.  
  
"Wait! How do I stop Ranma?" Usagi asked desperately.  
  
Serenity smiled and touched a finger to Usagi's crescent."You'll know that and much more when you return. Bye now." Serenity's last act before disappearing completely was to kiss Usagi lightly on the cheek.  
  
Once again the world went dark.  
****  
  
Usagi opened her eyes to see the scene just as she had left it. Ranma hadn't carved his initials in Genma at least. She tucked the small key into her pocket and cupped her hands slightly below her breast. Soft silver light began to gather in her hands, until an amorphous blob of mercury-like energy slowly roiled in her grasp. Ranma may be powerful, but he hadn't truly come into his power yet, but Usagi had been duking it out with the most powerful entities in the known universe since she was fourteen and she could throw around some serious energy when she wanted to. Now that she actually knew how to use her own power-her mother had somehow passed the knowledge to her-Usagi could act. The mass of energy she had formed shot out of her hands and exploded in a radiant burst of silver light at Ranma's feet.  
  
It had been a construct, a magical spell that only very powerful or very skillful people could create. Within it were four separate spells. One stripped Ranma of his dark aura while another put him to sleep. Genma got the mercy of a minor healing spell, not strong enough to keep him from being a mass of scars, but enough to keep him alive, and a mind altering spell that would make the smallest of lies that passes beyond his lips be excrutiatingly painful.  
  
The break in the action and Usagi's little light show tore everyone from their little bloodfest.  
  
"I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki said from the porch. She spoke in a lighthearted manner, but internally she was scared nearly breathless. What if she had ever pissed Ranma off enough to attack her like he had just done to his own father? Admittedly, she didn't know what the panda had done to deserve being skinned, but just the thought that Ranma was capable of such cruelty was disquieting.  
  
Akane was busy being violently sick behind a bush and Kasumi was hugging her unconscious father protectively, her face as pale as milk as she stared at Ranma's sleeping form.  
  
"It was the negative energy inside of him that did that, not Ranma," Usagi said."He hasn't learned to control his power yet."  
  
The senshi didn't know who to goggle at the most, Ranma or Usagi. On the one hand, they had just seen some prime quality violence commited to a man whom they had very little respect for by a cute boy who had seemingly turned into a monster, and on the other there was Usagi, who had not even transformed and had done some kind of new attack that not only stopped Ranma from further savaging Genma, but had stopped all og Genma wounds from bleeding and even closed up some of the really bad ones.  
  
Akane came from behind her bush, her face nearly as pale as Kasumi's, and a glowing mallet in her hands."Raaaannnnmmmaaa!" She charged towards her fallen fiance with the firm intent to severely punish Ranma while he was still sleeping for hurting her father. Even Akane had enough sense to know better than to beat on Ranma when he was enraged to the point of killing.  
  
Akane never made it to Ranma. Usagi waved at the girl and a sheet of silver light flew from her hand. As it washed over Akane, the mallet slipped through suddenly slack fingers and it fell to the ground beside the now sleeping Akane.  
  
"Hmm, if Ranma isn't really a Saotome, I wonder if he's still engaged to my sister, or Ukyo for that matter?" Nabiki's question was calculated. There were other money making opportunities that were much safer than dealing with this new Ranma, and having him around wasn't really her idea of fun anyway. The blonde girl also had Nabiki on edge. She had casually taken Ranma down, an extraordianry feat that she wouldn't have previously believed possible. The blonde also seemed to share a mark similar to Ranma's on her forehead. She definitely didn't want to get an over protective sister with magic powers upset at her.  
  
"Usagi, how are you doing all this stuff?" Makoto asked her friend quietly.   
  
"Mother showed me how," Usagi answered. Once again she was working magic, this time in the palm of her upturned hand. A translucent ball of shimmering energy was floating over her palm. In a dull flash of light, Setsuna's face appeared in the globe. The green haired woman couldn't have looked more unsuprised if someone had told her the sky was blue."Um, Setsuna, this is really important. Could you open a portal to the Time Gate for us?"  
  
Setsuna nodded without speaking, and moments later there was a swirling gray portal leading to the Time Gate floating a few inches above the ground three feet behind Usagi.  
  
Usagi said,"Thanks," and allowed the globe to fade from existance."Makoto, could you carry Ranma though?"  
  
Within a minute all the senshi and Ranma were standing on a platform floating in a formless gray mist. Rini rushed over to Ranma as soon as Makoto set him down and hugged him as best she could with him lying on his side asleep. He also came away from the encounter with a cheek covered with small pink smudges from the lipstick that Minako had let Rini borrow.  
  
"Usagi, you're starting to freak me out," Minako declared.  
  
Usagi chuckled weakly."Sorry guys, but my Mother, you know, Queen Serenity, visited me in my head and told me about Ranma and some other stuff. I really need to talk to Setsuna, I wish she would goon and do her mysterious appearance so we can get this over with."  
  
"Usagi, where are Luna and Artemis?" Ami asked as she looked around for the cats' duffel bag.  
  
"Oh no! I left them back there with those horrible people!" Usagi shouted."Damnit Setsuna, get out here so I can go save my cat!" Usagi demanded. It took a moment for her to realize what she had said, but when she did Usagi turned bright red and clamped her hand over her mouth.  
  
"I'm here, Princess," Setsuna announced from behind the group.  
  
Usagi pulled the crystal key that her mother had given her from her pocket and gave it to Setsuna."Mother said for you to train Ranma to use both sides of his soul and to choose a successor to be Sailor Pluto."  
  
For once since anyone of the girls had known her, Setsuna was clearly shocked. Thunderstruck would have been a better description."Princess I-  
  
"She said that Ranma could destroy the planet if he doesn't learn to control it," Usagi asserted.  
  
"I understand. Leave Ranma here, everyone else step through the portal." Setsuna pointed to empty space, but it soon grew a portal like the one they had used to travel to the gate.  
  
Rini ran over to Ranma and Screamed,"I just got him back, you can't take him away!"  
  
Usagi went to Rini and whispered,"Come on, you know that Ranma is better off here until he gets control of himself. Look at what he did to Genma, the man who raised him."  
  
Rini shot back,"That man was mean, Ranma wouldn't hurt any of us!"  
  
"Rini, you don't understand. Ranma is only using the bad magic in him right now and since he doesn't know how to control it, it's making him bad too. Setsuna can help him learn to control his magic because she has the same kind of magic." Usagi hugged her daughter."Come on, we need to go get Luna and Artemis before the fat man eats them."  
  
Rini managed a small giggle at that."Diana wouldn't be very happy with us if that happened, would she?" They had left Diana at home with a severe case of the feline eqivalent to the common cold.  
****  
  
Author's Notes: I know it's a short chapter, but once again, this felt like a good place to stop. Now for the good part. I'm pretty sure who the new Pluto is gonna be, but if I get a worthy suggestion that could work...well ya never know, right? So send me your suggestions or guesses at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com. She should be attractive, smart, and from the animeverse. If your choice isn't from one of the more widely distributed animes that I may have not have seen yet, please include a brief description. And all C&C except for grammatical corrections is welcome.  
  
P.S. Lots of people have asked why I used Rini as the name for Usagi's daughter instead of Chibi-Usa. The answer is that I just like the name more than Chibi-Usa, go figure ^_^  



	5. A Child of Light Born of Darkness 4

  
A Child of Light Born of Darkness: Chapter 4  
  
No one had moved at the Tendo residence when the senshi returned through Setsuna's portal.  
  
"You wouldn't happen to know where I could find my duffel bag, would you?" Usagi asked Nabiki.  
  
Nabiki shook her head slowly and asked,"Who are you people? What did you do to Ranma? Where is Ranma?"  
  
Kasumi, the only other Tendo conscious at the moment, left her father's side and hurried off to the dojo. The blonde girl must have left it in there.   
  
"That's none of your concern," Rei snapped. She wanted to get as far away from this place as possible.  
  
"Oh no, I believe it is. You girls show up, Ranma goes berserk and almost kills his father, and then you kidnap him. I'm sure the authorities would love to ask you a few questions. Hmm, if you would hold on just a moment." Nabiki pulled a small cell phone from her back pocket and flipped open the cover.  
  
"Why you?" Rei growled and made a lunge for Nabiki but Makoto caught her by the arm and pulled her back.  
  
Ami looked at her friends and asked,"Can we trust her?" Of course they wouldn't mention anything relating to the senshi, that was an unspoken agreement, but enough truth could sate Nabiki's curiousity. They all eventually agreed, though it was with varying degrees of enthusiasm.  
  
Before Ami could tell Nabiki anything, Kasumi came walking through the new garage-sized door in her home with the duffel bag that held Luna and Artemis. She was holding the bag as away from her body as possible to avoid whatever was inside of it that was hissing and screaming.  
  
"Thank you!" Usagi said to Kasumi, then she casually punched the bag a few times."Heheh, all better."  
  
"I'm waiting," Nabiki said. She wasnted to know what in hell was going on, but the sooner these girls left, the sooner she could call a construction contractor.  
  
"Oh my!" Kasumi saw Akane and rushed over to her.  
  
"The simple truth of the matter is that Ranma is Usagi's grand son," Ami told Nabiki, pointing to Usagi who waved brightly in acknowledgement."Rini," she indicated Rini who gave a shy nod,"is Usagi's daughter, and Ranma's mother."  
  
Nabiki looked from the ditzy looking blond to the little pink haired girl and burst out laughing. After she calmed down, she asked herself,"What has the jerk gotten himself into this time?" To Ami, she asked,"And are you all super heroes too?" They all started shifting nervously. Oh this was rich!  
  
"I'm not asking you to believe me. In the future Usagi will give birth to Rini. Rini is just visiting the past as a sort of educational vacation. When Rini is older she will have Ranma during a war and bring him into the past to keep him safe. This has already happened and will continue to happen in a never ending cycle. Rini didn't count on Genma stealing Endymion, which is his real name by the way, and we've just now tracked him down." Finished, Ami breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't 'really' lied, just warped the truth in a couple of places.  
  
"Suuure, whatever you say." Nabiki raised the phone and prepared to dial.  
  
"Keep in mind what you saw Usagi do," Rei said."And the portal, where did it come from? You're dealing with forces beyond your control or understanding, so why not just save yourself the trouble of dying, and leave us and Ranma along."  
  
"You obviously haven't come through Nerima lately," Nabiki quipped."We have people that can do magic visiting at least every two weeks. A little less than a month ago we had a fight between Ranma, an ancient war goddess, and a giant minotaur, so you can see how your little threats wouldn't bother me."  
  
"What about your family?" Rei asked nastily."How would you feel if you woke up one morning and they were all dead? Nevermind that, we can just go ahead and get rid of you now." Rei hoped that her friends knew to go along with her."Who wants first shot?" she asked.  
  
Usagi said,"I would, but I'm feeling a little tired, why don't you do it Rei?" Wow, pretending to be evil was fun!  
  
Rei grinned to herself. The meatball head did have a brain after all."Oh well, guess you have to burn now." She held her hand out and focussed all her concentration on the sacred flame back home at her temple. Silently, Rei called out for its assistance, reminding it who had kept it alive for the past decade.  
  
No one had any idea what Rei was doing, but they weren't going to spoil her performance by asking.  
  
With an explosion of breath, Rei clenched her fist then reopened it. Fire exploded into being, the miniature blaze roaring and throwing off sparks."Don't worry, I won't kill your father, he didn't see anything, but you and your sisters are another matter entirely."  
  
Nabiki's calm exterior and icy expression of skepticism, began to get some serious cracks in it when Rei's hand had caught fire. Ranma wasn't here to protect them now, and she was outnumbered by a group of witches. Just as Rei had her arm drawn back as if she were about to through a baseball, Nabiki hurriedly said,"Okay, okay, you win, just call off the firebrand!" She snapped her cell phone shut and pocketed it."I won't tell anyone about Ranma. I'll even make sure that everybody thinks he ran away or something, deal?" Nabiki had learned the art of the bluff years ago, but you could only take a bluff so far before you had to lay your cards on the table, and Nabiki's cards were her's and her family's lives.  
  
Rei let her hand fall to her side, the fire gone as soon as Nabiki had spoken."Good. We'll be going now."  
  
The girls were a block away from the Tendo home when they all dropped their dire expressions and cracked up. Rei had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard when she hugged Usagi,"You were great, meatball head! Did you see how scared she was?" She started laughing again.  
  
After everyone had regained their composure, Ami thought to ask,"Rei, how did you do that? With the fire."  
  
"I summoned part of the fire from the temple's sacred flame."  
  
"I wish I could do something like that," Usagi whined.  
  
Rei and all the other girls looked at her in confusion, then Rei said,"Usagi, are you an idiot? You 'can' do stuff like that!"  
  
Usagi was about to scream at Rei for insulting her again, but movement in her bag alerted her to Luna and Artemis' return to consciousness. She unzipped it and looked down to see both felines glaring up at her, their heads each crowned by a huge lump.  
  
"Usagi, have I ever told you that it's not polite to mistreat your advisors?" Luna asked calmy. Before Usagi could answer, though, the cat sprang out of the bag, followed by Artemis, and began a systematic mauling of her princess.  
****  
  
Ranma regained consciousness a few hours after the Princess brought him to her. Setsuna had spent the time aquanting herself with events that had led up to the revelation of Ranma's true idenity, and reviewing some of the more momentous events of his life. Who would have thought Saffron, a pitiful fire elemental during the Silver Millenium, would achieve such power?  
  
As Setsuna had sat before the Time Gate watching Ranma's life fly by, she couldn't help but curse herself for not dealing with many of the super natural relics and entities of the Silver Millenium. They could have been used against her fellow senshi and the Princess on numerous occasions, but luckily their enemies had never thought to look for such remnants. They appeared somehow drawn to Ranma, though. It was nice to see that Queen Mercury's efforts to splice human DNA with that of certain species of the Draconic race that had once inhabited her planet were at least partially successful. The Musk Dynasty would be a powerful ally in the future if the traits in their rulers continued to breed true.  
  
The Amazons of Jupiter, too, seemed to have found a home on earth, and were keeping their martial tradition alive. It was as if the whole valley of Jusendo had somehow weathered the storm of the downfall of the Silver Millenium. The same magic that had cloaked it from her time sense had obviously kept it hidden from Beryll's forces. Setsuna felt sorry for Ranma. Almost every bad thing in the last two years that had happened to him were because of the Silver Millenium, but the struggles he had fought were also responsible for awakening his true soul.  
  
"Argh, what hit me?" Ranma groaned from his place on Setsuan's bed. He sat up, resting his back against the carved headboard and surveyed his surroundings. The walls weren't visible, draped as they were in black and purple silk, the floor was a single unbroken slab of marble, and the bed he was in was sheathed in dark purple like the walls. There was also a tall, green-haired woman with a regal baring, sitting in a leather chair against the wall."Who are you?"  
  
"Setsuna, a friend of your mothers," Setsuna answered with an almost imperceptible smile.  
  
"She never mentioned you," Ranma said warily. He through back the heavy comforter and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. His slippers were waiting for him by the bed.  
  
"Your 'real' mother, Ranma, not Nodoka Saotome," Setsuna corrected.  
  
Ranma continued to sit on the bed."Oh, is she here?" Wherever here was. Ranma remembered bits and pieces of his actions before passing out and the image of Genma's bloody body froze in his mind."Setsuna, do you know if I killed Oy-...Genma?"  
  
"Luckily no, Usagi stopped you and healed most of his wounds. But that's why you're here, to learn to control your new power."  
  
Usagi had stopped him? Damn, beaten by a girl. Well, she did have the crescent so she must have had some kind of power like his."I can't believe I lost control like that," Ranma sighed.  
  
"We will soon correct that problem, but now I need your help," Setsuna hated asking for assistance from anyone, but this time there was no helping it, she could not use the crystal key by herself."If you would follow me?"  
  
Ranma shrugged and followed Setsuna out through the break in the wall hangings that served as a door. The long corridor that they travelled down had no visible walls, obscured in the same way as the room they had left, and the floor was still a single unbroken piece of smoothe marble. They finally reached the end of the corridor and with it the end of whatever building they were in.  
  
Ranma found himself in a featureless landscape composed of a marble floor and endless gray mist. He looked back towards the exit of the corridor only to find that it was gone."What is this place?"  
  
"This is no place. We are in a pocket of limbo where time does not flow," Setsuna answered.  
  
Ranma had no idea what limbo was, but decided to wait a while to ask. For now he would simply observe. Perhaps a minute later the mists began to part and Ranma saw the oldest structure in existance. Of course he didn't know that, but he could feel the age practically radiating from the simple hoop of gray metal.  
  
"This device predates our universe, Ranma. Through it, the winds of time are funnelled and and the endless strands of probability are woven into a coherent destiny for creation."  
  
"Whatever you say." Ranma wasn't about to call her a liar. For all he knew she could be the goddess of twinkies, or just as easily some loonie chick with magic powers, but she hadn't tried to kill or marry him yet, so he went along with her.  
  
Setsuna had never honestly believed that she would have to ever give up her position as the Guardian of the Time Gate, but as the only one of the senshi who could actually give her powers to another, the possiblity had always been there, nestled deeply in the back of her mind. Maybe it had been that small piece of knowledge that had driven her to choose a favorite replacement for herself every generation, and not just boredom like she had believed. The current favorite was a bit on the elderly side, but the Time Gate could correct that."Stand away from the Time Gate, Ranma," Setsuna ordered.  
  
Ranma obeyed, taking several steps backwards. He watched Setsuna pull a funny looking little stick from somewhere and hold it above her head.  
  
"Pluto Planet Power, Make Up!" she called out loudly.  
  
To Ranma, Setsuna was enveloped in a column of energy for a fraction of a second, but when the woman was once again visible, the black slacks and green blouse she had worn were gone and in their place she were a stylized school uniform, with too many bows and a shorter than regulation skirt. In her hand she held an ornate staff that looked something like a giant key.  
  
Setsuna touched the Time Key to the edge of the gate and opened her mind to the time stream. Once she had located her target, an image flickered into existance within the metal hoop.  
  
Further to Ranma's amazement, the image in the Time Gate thing was of the interior of the Nekohaten. It was closed for the night and no one was visible. At some ungiven signal, the picture shifted. First it alighted on a duck sleeping in a small bamboo cage in the kitchen, then on a familiar purple haired girl who was slowly brushing her long purple hair and stairing at a poster sized picture of Ranma, and finally, the image shifted once more to reveal the small form of Cologne, meditating upon a tatami mat.  
  
Cologne's eyes snapped open and she asked,"Who's there?"  
  
The large garnet gem on the head of Setsuna's staff flashed with blood-red light and Cologne disappeared from the picture in the loop and reappeared, tatami mat and all, beside Setsuna.  
  
Cologne didn't move, only eying Ranma and Setsuna evenly."Son-in-law, I wouldn't have expected you to deal with dark forces."  
  
"You mistake my intentions and my idenity, Cologne," Setsuna said."I have brought you here merely in hopes of naming you my successor."  
  
Cologne raised an eyebrow at the claim and asked,"Successor to what, may I ask?"  
  
"Why the Guardianship of the Time Gate of course," Setsuna answered.  
  
Cologne's proportionately too-big eyes, grew a couple sizes larger, but she controlled her obvious suprise, asking,"And what does the boy have to do with this."  
  
"His grandmother, my future queen and eventual ruler of the earth, has commanded me to train him in the use of his powers. To do this I must give up my position as guardian so that I may access my full powers." There was no point in lying to Cologne. The woman would eventually find out anyway.  
  
"Grandmother? Queen? Ruler of earth?" Ranma spouted the questions rapidly, unable to comprehend the information.  
  
Setsuna, who for so many years had been without humor that she had nearly forgotten what it was, the look of complete astonishment on Ranma's face at her next words actually made her laugh."Oh yes Ranma, one day you will be prince of the earth, and eventually king."  
  
She spoke with such certainty that Ranma couldn't help but believe her. With her laughter bubbling helplessly behind him, Ranma sat down roughly on the cold marble floor and buried his face in his hands, muttering,"Damn," repeatedly.  
  
"So do you accept?"  
  
"How could I not? The legends still speak of the Guardian who rides the Winds of Time. This is an honor beyond all imagining, though I'm afraid I won't hold the position for very many years." Cologne chuckled slightly at her jest.  
  
"Your youth will be returned to you in full when the mantle is passed to you. Though I'm asking you to fill my place, there are restrictions on your future actions that I must tell you about now. The future has been planned in advance for over a thousand years. You will have to carry out those plans exactly as given for the world to have any lasting peace."  
  
"What of my Amazons?"  
  
"Until very recently they have been hidden from me by magic ancient and powerful, therefore I do not know what the future holds for your people, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that if you any in way seek to interfere with their fate you will be placing the world in grave danger and destroying thousands of years of careful work. Even knowing this, do you still consent to the position?"  
  
"I may be old, but I'm no fool. I could never put a single tribe of Amazons over the welfare of the entire planet," Cologne answered earnestly.  
  
"I believe you, but still I must warn you. Misuse the power granted to you and the Queen, Ranma, or myself, anyone of us, could destroy you with a thought. It is the nature of our power that allows a bond between a human and the Time Gate." Cologne nodded."Ranma, get up, I need your help."  
  
Ranma climbed to his feet. So much for a peaceful existance. At least no one would try to kill him if he were a king.  
  
Setsuna gave Ranma the blue crystal key and drew its twin from a long silver necklace. She unclasped the necklace and held the key in her hand."Okay Ranma, go to the other side of the Gate and find the little black box with a key hole in it, then stick the key in." Setsuna followed her own instructions but on the box on the other side of the Gate. After Ranma was in position, she said,"On the count of three turn it clockwise. 1...2...3."  
  
As they turned the keys, the space inside the Time Gate became milky and distorted. Setsuna released her key and beckoned for Cologne to step forward."Cologne, take the key and once again when I count to three you and Ranma turn them, but this time counter clockwise."  
  
Cologne had to stand on the very tips of her shrunken little feet and reach as high as she could to turn the key, but as Setsuna's count reached three she turned the key as commanded and allowed herself to relax.  
  
"Is that it?" Ranma asked. From what he had heard from Setsuna there were some major powers changing hands. Shouldn't there have been some flashing lights or something?  
  
"What did you expect, fireworks?" Setsuna asked. Ranma nodded."Nothing actually happened that would case any energy to be released Ranma. All that little ritual did was to split my bond so that Cologne is now getting a trickle of the same power I get from the Time Gate." To Cologne she said,"You won't be able to feel it for a while, but the magic will begin to revitalize your body within a week. You must have your affairs in order by then."  
  
"I had best be getting back to the Nekohaten then, if you don't mind?" Cologne asked, pointing a wrinkled finger at the Time Gate.  
  
Setsuna placed the Time Key on the Time Gate and the image of Cologne's room at the Nekohaten reappeared."Just step through."  
  
As Cologne stepped through the portal, she said,"Thank you Guardian, for my youth and the honor and trust you have given me. Farewell young prince."  
****  
  
Setsuna led Ranma through the mists for a couple minutes until they came to a normal looking wooden door. Beyond it was a small, windowless apartment."Within the mists, I can control reality to a degree. I've placed these rooms here for your comfort since until you gain at least rudimentary control over your powers you can not return to earth for fear of you losing control again."  
  
"Can I go outside to practice?" Ranma asked. If the prospect of a little peace didn't sound so appealling to Ranma he would have been more than a little upset at being confined like an animal in the zoo.  
  
"It's best that you didn't. You would become lost within the mists easily. If you wish to practice your martial arts, go out the door in the kitchen. There is a dojo there."  
  
"Cool. How about telling me some stuff about this whole prince and king business? And I wouldn't mind meeting my mother."  
  
"All in good time, all in good time, but now with my bond to the Time Gate diminished in power, my old powers are returning and the process is exhausting me. I will return tomorrow and we will begin your education." With a small wave, Setsuna, her face drawn and her red eyes weary, left Ranma to himself.  
****  
  
Author's Notes: I was gonna use Nabiki, but the more I thought about it the less I liked that idea. I honestly hadn't even thought about Cologne as the new pluto until one of my readers sent in the idea. Thanks whoever you are(too lazy to go back and check, but I'll put your name in the next post). C&C welcome at dark_phoneix@hotmail.com 


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